eBookNewser: Sesame Street has launched a bookstore for the iPad. It’s not all good news though. Early reports are that Oscar has declined to participate in any of the publications.

]]>Chris O'Sheahttp://www.adweek.com/fishbowlny/the-skinny-whine-win-block-shop/32805#disqus_thread
Chris O'Shea
http://www.adweek.com/fishbowlny/the-skinny-whine-win-block-shop/32805
http://www.adweek.com/fishbowlny/?p=31801Thu, 31 Mar 2011 22:30:50 +0000More Furloughs Coming For Some Gannett EmployeesTop executives and “others in higher paid positions” at Gannett will be asked to take a furlough in the second quarter of 2011, reports Gannett Blog. The news was confirmed by a memo sent by Nashville Tennessean Publisher Carol Hudler, who is also president of Gannett’s South Group of newspapers.

The top executives might not mind so much: many got big raises last year, including Chairman and CEO Craig Dubow, whose pay doubled to $9.4 million.

Gannett Blog’s Jim Hopkins says that Gannett has a precedent for setting furloughs based on income. In 2009, employees making more than $90,000 were told to take two weeks off while everyone else got one. This had the unintended (and to our eyes hilarious) side effect of some people learning that their coworkers made significantly more money for the same jobs.

The furloughs are likely needed. Last week, COO Gracia Martore said that the company’s publishing revenue would be down another 6 to 7 percent in Q1.

The network claimed seven of 39 2010 Peabody Awards announced by the University of Georgia, more than any other news or TV outlet. Along with the Tom Hanks produced miniseries The Pacific and Spike Lee’s follow-up New Orleans documentary If God is Willing and da Creek Don’t Rise, the HBO nods also encompass a pair of more unusual Peabody players:

Magic & Bird: A Courtship of Rivals: Not your average sports biography by a long jump shot, it examines the different cultures from whence these NBA legends sprang, their unusually long rivalry and their unlikely friendship.

Other HBO programs honored are Burma VJ,For Neda,12th & Delaware, and Temple Grandin. It’s also great to see ESPN’s fantastic 30 for 30 documentary series get an Athens accolade.

]]>Richard Horganhttp://www.adweek.com/fishbowlny/2010-peabody-awards-hbo-spike-lee-tom-hanks-larry-bird-magic-johnson/135064#disqus_thread
Richard Horgan
http://www.adweek.com/fishbowlny/2010-peabody-awards-hbo-spike-lee-tom-hanks-larry-bird-magic-johnson/135064
http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlla/?p=25666Fri, 01 Apr 2011 00:00:34 +0000Captured Then Freed NYT Journo Plans To Stay In The BusinessLynsey Addario spent seven days in captivity in Libya, and her story, along with three other New York Times journalists, was published in a March 22 NYT piece.

Reading through the comments on that article, though, Addario says she noticed a pattern.

“Some comments said: ‘How dare a woman go to a war zone?’ and ‘How could The New York Times let a woman go to the war zone?’

“To me, that’s grossly offensive. This is my life, and I make my own decisions. If a woman wants to be a war photographer, she should.”

Yes, it’s different being a woman on the front lines: she might not be able to jump across a 3-foot-wide canal and she admits she’s not as strong as her male colleagues, despite daily exercise (“Because if you do a lot of military embeds, people are not going to wait for you”). And she was groped a dozen times in Libya. “I do find that a woman who is alone is more prone to being mistreated than a woman who is with a man,” she says.

But she can enter private Muslim homes and spend time with even the most conservative Muslim families. That’s something men can’t do.

And despite the physical and emotional toll, she plans to stay in the business. “I will cover another war. I’m sure I will. It’s what I do. It’s important to show people what’s happening,” she writes.

Brava Lynsey.

]]>Rachel Kaufmanhttp://www.adweek.com/fishbowlny/captured-then-freed-nyt-journo-plans-to-stay-in-the-business/315029#disqus_thread
Rachel Kaufman
http://www.adweek.com/fishbowlny/captured-then-freed-nyt-journo-plans-to-stay-in-the-business/315029
http://www.adweek.com/fishbowlny/?p=6325Thu, 31 Mar 2011 20:04:33 +0000Nick Kristof Discusses Ethics of ReportingNick Kristof recently participated in an online workshop aimed at helping educators who wanted to teach the documentary Reporter in the classroom. The film, which follows Kristof through the Congo, details the techniques used by the columnist to get people to care about his reporting.

Kristof tackles some pretty tough issues in the Q & A, below are a few of the highlights.

On not letting passion interfere with fact:

The challenge is to feel passion and outrage without losing your skepticism. Over the years, for example, I’ve learned that victims of human rights abuses lie and exaggerate as much as perpetrators do. It’s very easy if you’re passionate and outraged to listen to victims and not double-check and triple-check and listen to the other side – or to get defensive when you’ve taken the victims’ side and not investigate charges that you’ve gone too far.

On how he chooses the topics of his columns:

I’m deluged with requests from people asking me to write about one injustice or another, and I can only address a small number. I look, first, for an issue that concerns a lot of people – so I’d be much less likely to write about one innocent prisoner than about a larger scale problem. I also look for an issue that people don’t know about but that if they did, they would be moved. Fistulas, sex trafficking, Darfur and Congo all fit into that rubric to some degree. On the other hand, I’ve written much less about AIDS, because it’s something that people already know about, so it’s harder to make a difference.

On the line between being a journalist and helping those in need:

My own answer, and I think that of most journalists, is that there’s no special journalistic principle involved. You’re a human first, a journalist after. In the case of the Buddhist monk [that set himself on fire in protest], the reporter knew that this was a calculated, well-thought out protest, not an impulsive act, and he thought it would be patronizing to intervene. I think maybe I buy that. But in other circumstances, I would reach for the fire extinguisher rather than my camera. As for the starving child [the Pulitzer-winning photograph of an Ethiopian child shadowed by a vulture], the photographer said that he had indeed taken the child into a feeding center after snapping the photo. And in Libya, some journalists were busy snapping photos but others did intervene and one was expelled from Libya for doing so.

]]>Chris O'Sheahttp://www.adweek.com/fishbowlny/nick-kristof-discusses-ethics-of-reporting/32789#disqus_thread
Chris O'Shea
http://www.adweek.com/fishbowlny/nick-kristof-discusses-ethics-of-reporting/32789
http://www.adweek.com/fishbowlny/?p=31785Thu, 31 Mar 2011 20:00:57 +0000New Museum and Partners Announce ‘Festival of Ideas for the New City’Where can you attend a conference keynoted by architect Rem Koolhaas, sample locally brewed kombucha under a colorful canopy, take a flashlight tour of metal plates engraved by Italian masters, see Chinatown by bike, check out a new mural by Mary Heilmann, and leave with a rooftop garden ready for planting? The Festival of Ideas for the New City, a collaborative initiative announced today by the New Museum of Contemporary Art and the hundreds of downtown New York organizations that have signed on to participate.

“Three years ago, when we moved to the Bowery, we witnessed a dramatic transformation of this neighborhood,” said New Museum director Lisa Phillips at a press briefing held this morning at the institution’s SANAA-designed home (which somehow manages to look even cooler beneath a steady drizzle). Conversations between Museum staffers and neighboring organizations including the Architectural League, the Cooper Union, the Drawing Center, and Storefront for Art and Architecture soon developed into the two-year planning process for a festival that would, according to Phillips, “harness the power of the creative community to reimagine the city.”

Artists, writers, architects, engineers, designers, urban farmers, and the public are invited to take part in the free festival, which will run from May 4 through May 8 in locations around downtown Manhattan. Things kick off with a three-day slate of symposia, lectures, and workshops exploring “big ideas that change the course of a city.” In addition to Koolhaas, the organizers have secured computer scientist Jaron Lanier and Antanas Mockus, a former mayor of Bogotá, Columbia, to give keynote addresses. Other panelists include architect Elizabeth Diller, Urban Genome Project founder Pedro Reyes, and Pennsylvania politician John Fetterman, who was recently dubbed “Mayor of Rust” by The New York Times Magazine. “Interestingly enough, he’ll be driving here, which I think is kind of great,” said New Museum curator Richard Flood at today’s press briefing.

Save Saturday, May 7 for the “innovative, minimal-waste” outdoor StreetFest, which will take place along the Bowery. “This is not a street fair for tube socks and sandwiches,” said Bob Holman, founder of the Bowery Potery Club. Expect local organizations presenting their wares, urban farmers offering cooking demos beneath innovative tented modules, exciting eats, and “outdoor living rooms.” Finally, the entire weekend will be a showcase for approximately 100 independent projects, exhibitions, and performances all over downtown. A few that caught our eye: the Art Production Fund, in partnership with Sotheby’s, will brighten up the dingy rolling gates of local businesses with murals by the likes of Glenn Ligon and Lawrence Weiner, artist Paul Villinski will welcome visitors to his Gulfstream trailer-turned-solar-powered mobile art studio, and Mott Street’s Church of the Transfiguration will host an all-night Pecha Kucha with a creative urban theme. Holman summed it up nicely: “It sounds like a party to me.”

]]>Stephanie Murghttp://www.adweek.com/fishbowlny/new-museum-and-partners-announce-festival-of-ideas-for-the-new-city/284188#disqus_thread
Stephanie Murg
http://www.adweek.com/fishbowlny/new-museum-and-partners-announce-festival-of-ideas-for-the-new-city/284188
http://www.adweek.com/fishbowlny/?p=12958Thu, 31 Mar 2011 19:54:59 +0000Arianna Huffington and Joan Didion Raised Almost $100K for College NewspaperThe Columbia Daily Spectator was able to raise a record-breaking sum of $95,921 at their annual Blue Pencil dinner, with a little help from media mogul Arianna Huffington and celebrated author Joan Didion.

According to the New York Observer, the dinner was $250 a plate, so the near $100,000 total was aided by some truly generous gifts, including $45,000 in gifts from former White House Counsel Bernard Nussbaum and Navigant manager Ernest Brod, both alums of the college paper.

Publisher of the Columbia Daily Spectator Aditya Mukerjee announced the results in an alumni newsletter, saying that the dinner was a “watershed moment” – it was their first dinner to feature a speaker from new media.

Times are changing! We’re glad to hear Arianna is helping to spread the wealth.

]]>Ujala Sehgalhttp://www.adweek.com/fishbowlny/arianna-huffington-and-joan-didion-raised-almost-100k-for-college-newspaper/32772#disqus_thread
Ujala Sehgal
http://www.adweek.com/fishbowlny/arianna-huffington-and-joan-didion-raised-almost-100k-for-college-newspaper/32772
http://www.adweek.com/fishbowlny/?p=31768Thu, 31 Mar 2011 19:18:08 +0000Meteorologist John Marshall ‘Wasn’t Shocked’ by Losing Weekend Shifts at WCBS-TVIf you wake up early on the weekend, then you are probably aware of the John Marshall body of work. He had more than a dozen years under his belt at WNBC when they went in another direction last summer.

But as fate would have it, the timing worked perfectly for Marshall. In August, Megan Glaros left her weekend morning weather anchoring at WCBS-TV for Chicago. That same month, Marshall joined Channel 2 as a per diem employee.

Unlike at WNBC, Marshall, who grew up in New Jersey, was unable to get full-time status at WCBS. On Sunday, he did his final shift for the station. As we reported last week, Katie Fehlinger has been hired to take those shifts. Like Glaros before her (along with the same hair color), Fehlinger also handles weeknight feature reporting.

Marshall says news director David Friend had an open-door policy with him.

\"I wasn’t shocked, put it that way,\" Marshall admits. \"Would I have loved to have stayed there full-time and really become part of the team? Absolutely.\"

But instead, during the second-half of his brief WCBS stint, Marshall was informed that they were \"looking elsewhere.\"

While told upfront that the station was bringing in other candidates, the easy going Marshall believed, as the incumbent, he was the frontrunner to nail down the position.

\"I was one of their selections because of my name, and people knew me,\" Marshall tells FishbowlNY.

Despite being per diem, WCBS did feature Marshall with the Weather Team in promos. Plus, his seven-month tenure meant he was showcased during one of the city’s worst winters on record.

\"I did a lot of work for them during the snowstorm coverage, which I totally enjoyed.\"

In the end, Fehlinger, a Pennsylvania native, was brought on board from AccuWeather.

Seeing it first-hand, Marshall knows that the business has changed drastically.

\"It’s not like what it was 10 years ago, people coming and going so rapidly.

Of course, Marshall is hoping that it will be a rapid turnaround to his next TV gig, preferably staying put in New York.

\"My name is out there … I don’t know exactly where that’s going to put me, but my name is definitely out there,\" Marshall admits.

Marshall got his start in the business at WNBC fresh out of college as a producer for Al Roker. Today, although, he’s being proactive about TV employment, Marshall understands his future is uncertain.

\"I’m just going to continue trucking and moving forward,\" Marshall admits. \"I don’t know what that means. Literally, like I just don’t know what that means television-wise, because there’s nothing full time out there right now.\"

But he is not going to change his nuts and bolts style to get back on TV.

\"I don’t have a shtick. I’m a regular Joe,\" Marshall says. \"I’ll just keep putting my product out, which is a no-nonsense forecast.\"

Having said that, Marshall would still find time to have fun with it, especially on the lighter morning shifts.

\"Honestly, I think people — the public, the viewer—know that about me, and … some people appreciate that about me,\" Marshall says.

That down-to-earth-style is Marshall’s since the beginning, as he remains true to himself and his family.

\"I love what I do. I don’t get off on being on TV,\" Marshall says. \"I kind of went in that direction early on in life…provided the family, and I made a decent salary.\"

This Sunday night, join @FishbowlNY as we live tweet the New York Emmy Awards. Follow @FishbowlNY. From photos of red-carpet arrivals to the winners, we’ll have the latest all evening with a full report Monday on FishbowlNY.

]]>Jerry Barmashhttp://www.adweek.com/fishbowlny/meteorologist-john-marshall-%e2%80%98wasn%e2%80%99t-shocked%e2%80%99-by-losing-weekend-shifts-at-wcbs-tv/32774#disqus_thread
Jerry Barmash
http://www.adweek.com/fishbowlny/meteorologist-john-marshall-%e2%80%98wasn%e2%80%99t-shocked%e2%80%99-by-losing-weekend-shifts-at-wcbs-tv/32774
http://www.adweek.com/fishbowlny/?p=31770Thu, 31 Mar 2011 19:05:36 +0000Dana Harris Keeping Busy as indieWIRE Editor-in-ChiefIt’s been a few months now since former Variety staffer Dana Harris set up shop from a home office in Highland Park as editor-in-chief of indieWIRE. Just back from SXSW and one of her monthly sojourns at the Snag Films parented website’s New York headquarters, she took time to chat via telephone with FishbowlLA about what lies ahead for the rest of 2011.

On the heels of The Playlist and Ted Hope, Harris says the company will be announcing another addition to the indieWIRE blog network in April. In terms of evaluating potential partners who retain ownership of their blog and split advertising and other revenues, she says it’s not as simple as finding sites with a particular monthly traffic threshold.

\"Blog network partners are programmed into a specific infrastructure,\" Harris explains. \"This represents a significant investment on our part, so it’s a real balancing act to find a partner like The Playlist that hits that sweet spot.\"

Harris works from a home she shares with two dogs and husband Douglas Stewart, a reporter for BoozeNews.com and professional Hollywood tour guide. She says after the hustle and bustle of the Variety news room, she has been pleasantly surprised by how much she likes working from home.

\"One of the dangers of course is that you can work too much,\" she says. \"But because I travel so much–I’m off next to Tribeca and Cannes–it’s great to be able to come back to the comforts of home. I think it’s also really important for indieWIRE to have this kind of presence in LA. At some point, we might well open a west coast office.\"

Managing editor Brian Brooks handles day-to-day editorial out of New York while LA adjacent editor-at-large Anne Thompson helps Harris especially with matters relating to the blog network. But in terms of the big picture of indieWIRE editorial strategy and figuring out how to break it down into smart, tactical moves, it’s all Harris.

Hopefully breaking its streak of bad luck and dismal PR, NPR announced by press release that it is receiving three 70th Annual George Foster Peabody Awards, which “recognize the most outstanding achievements in electronic media, including radio, television and cable.”

Among those awarded are NPR Islamabad correspondent Julie McCarthy for her coverage of Pakistan, the NPR News Investigation \"Behind the Bail Bond System,\" reported by correspondent Laura Sullivan, and the NPR News Investigation \"Seeking Justice for Campus Rapes,\" reported by correspondent Joseph Shapiro in collaboration with the Center for Public Integrity.

For those who are counting (who isn’t?), this gets NPR and NPR programming’s tally of total Peabody Awards up to 56. Well done, NPR. It’s time people started remembering you’re a news organization first.